Alcar integrates financial planning software with Arbor Software's Essbase; Announcement is first step in alcar's financial management integration strategy.CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1996--The Alcar Group Inc., a leading provider of financial planning Financial planning Evaluating the investing and financing options available to a firm. Planning includes attempting to make optimal decisions, projecting the consequences of these decisions for the firm in the form of a financial plan, and then comparing future performance against and valuation software, today announced a partnership with Arbor Software See Hyperion. to integrate Alcar's financial product line with Arbor's Essbase multidimensional database See OLAP. server. The integration is part of Alcar's comprehensive financial management integration strategy to support OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) Decision support software that allows the user to quickly analyze information that has been summarized into multidimensional views and hierarchies. OLAP tools are used to perform trend analysis on sales and financial information. (on-line analytical processing (database) On-Line Analytical Processing - (OLAP) A category of database software which provides an interface such that users can transform or limit raw data according to user-defined or pre-defined functions, and quickly and interactively examine the results in various dimensions ) for multidimensional planning, analysis and management reporting based on real-time, multi-user access to server-based data. At the user's request, data contained in Alcar's software is synchronized with the contents of an Essbase server, leveraging the multi-user read-write functions of Essbase for superior workgroup productivity. The combined solution integrates actual financial results stored in the Essbase multidimensional database with the long term planning and economic value models developed in Alcar for Windows. The Alcar for Windows Essbase Link allows managers to quickly assess the impact of actual results against their long-term plans as well as monitor changes in expectations for future performance. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Steve Beitler, senior director of financial processes and systems for Sears, Roebuck and Co., the ability to integrate Alcar software with Essbase holds considerable promise. "Right now, our organization uses both products independently of each other, said Beitler. "By integrating the two solutions, we can take information from our P&L, plug it into Alcar's software to test the impact of various scenarios - such as an acquisition - then store the scenarios in Essbase for future reference. Over time, we can compare scenarios year-to-year, enabling our organization to make the best possible business decisions based on a sound shareholder value model." "Alcar's integration strategy - as represented by today's announcement - is designed to speed the transformation of data to business decisions that impact shareholder value," said Doug Barton, director of product management for Alcar. "Seamless integration An addition of a new application, routine or device that works smoothly with the existing system. It implies that the new feature or program can be installed and used without problems. Contrast with "transparent," which implies that there is no discernible change after installation. of our software with Essbase and leading financial management applications will remove the complications that are often associated with data acquisition." "Arbor has teamed with leading financial applications and tools partners to provide our customers with a variety of solutions that meet their OLAP application needs," said Steve Fioretti, Arbor Software's director of channel marketing. "By partnering with Alcar, customers can leverage the Essbase server's analytical power and the rich functionality of Alcar for Windows for business planning and valuation applications." To become an Essbase-Ready partner, Alcar developed "Alcar for Windows Essbase Link" for its flagship application "Alcar for Windows." Alcar for Windows is a strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. and evaluation software application for Fortune 1000 companies, money center banks Money center banks Banks that raise most of their funds from the domestic and international money markets , relying less on depositors for funds. and accounting firms. The software affords chief financial officers, strategic planners and credit managers the ability to isolate, test and assess business decisions that impact the value of a particular company. Users can quickly and effectively evaluate strategic alternatives for economic validity - whether evaluating an acquisition, a joint venture, new business opportunity or any other critical business decision. Users can determine whether a plan, strategy or acquisition is capable of being funded by internal cash flow or external financing In the theory of capital structure, External financing is the phrase used to describe funds that firms obtain from outside of the firm. It is contrasted to internal financing which consists mainly of profits retained by the firm for investment. , and to what extent it changes the capital structure of their firm. By providing data integrity and standardization across the enterprise or workgroup, Alcar for Windows surpasses the modeling capabilities achieved with other financial software packages. Essbase is a multidimensional database optimized for business planning, analysis and management reporting applications such as profitability analysis, budgeting, forecasting, planning, financial consolidations, sales analysis and EIS (1) (Executive Information System) An information system that consolidates and summarizes ongoing transactions within the organization. It provides top management with all the information it requires at all times from internal and external sources. . Based upon a true, client/server architecture An environment in which the application processing is divided between client workstations and servers. It implies the use of desktop computers interacting with servers in a network in contrast to processing everything in a large centralized mainframe. See client/server. , Essbase supports multi-user read and write access, large-scale data capacity, robust analytical calculations, flexible data navigation and consistent, rapid response times. The Essbase server's open architecture supports direct data access using standard spreadsheets or leading third-party query, reporting and EIS tools. Essbase scales from a single-user version to an enterprise OLAP solution serving thousands of users with databases that are hundreds of gigabytes in size. Essbase enables corporations to deliver OLAP applications directly from operational systems, or as a data mart A subset of a data warehouse for a single department or function. A data mart may have tens of gigabytes of data rather than hundreds of gigabytes for the entire enterprise. See data warehouse. within an overall data warehousing architecture. Pricing, Requirements and Availability Alcar will sell and support the Alcar for Windows Essbase Link, available October 1, 1996. Pricing for the Alcar for Windows Essbase Link begins at $15,000 for five concurrent users, and pricing for Alcar for Windows begins at $40,000 for five concurrent users. Training is available across the U.S. directly from Alcar. Alcar also offers support on-line via the World Wide Web at http://www.Alcar.com, and via telephone seven days a week. About Arbor Software Arbor Software Corporation (Nasdaq:ARSW ARSW Annual Report of the Secretary of War ) develops and markets client/server software for business planning, analysis and management reporting. Arbor's products are used by more than 800 corporations spanning a broad range of industries and business applications including Bank of Boston, Fidelity, Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). , Neutrogena, Pennzoil, PepsiCo, Prudential and Sears. Arbor has over 100 application, services, tools and platform partners including Comshare, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft See Microsoft and IBM. . Arbor's products are sold direct, as well as through system integrators and VARs worldwide. Arbor's offices are located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Sunnyvale, Washington D.C., London and Paris. Information on Arbor products and services can be found on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www. Arborsoft.com. About Alcar Founded by two Northwestern University professors in 1979, The Alcar Group develops, markets and supports software solutions for business planning and evaluation. Based on Shareholder Value Analysis, the software has enhanced the strategic planning and analytical capabilities of financial executives at over 1,700 organizations worldwide. Headquartered in Chicago, The Alcar Group has offices in the world's top financial centers, including London, Hong Kong and Caracas. Information about The Alcar Group is available on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.alcar.com. -0- All trademarks, service marks, product and company names are the property of their respective owners CONTACT: Jennifer Karin Company PR 508/462-0516 jkcompany@aol.com or Joanna McMillan Arbor Software 408/541-4035 jmcmillan@arborsoft.com |
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